If you have dizzy spells, balance problems, light headedness, trouble remembering things, confusion, headaches, etc., and have been to the doctor and been tested and they can find nothing wrong, one thing many doctors overlook to check is your "trigger points " in your upper back and neck.
These are deep areas in the back and neck, in the muscles that are in spasm, or knots, that put pressure on the blood vessels going to the brain, affecting the oxygen and blood flow to the brain causing all of these symptoms and many more.
I spent 6 solid months with these symptoms and going to the doctor all the while being treated for a virus. I felt out of it half the time and felt like I was losing it.
I eventually found out they were all caused by a problem in my upper back and neck muscles. You do not have to have pain to have this problem, I didn't.
Please go to your neuro. or to a physical therapist and ask to have your trigger points check, and tell them your symptoms. It can only help you if this is the source.
I did go to physical therapy and from my first day on, continued to get better. I no longer am suffering.
The therapist does what they call soft tissue work, where they knead the knots out of these areas, this is turn takes the pressure off the blood vessels so you have good blood and oxygen flow to the brain.
I hope this helps anybody who has had all the tests and still no answers, as this is very often overlooked as the cause and very simple to fix. Good luck to all of you.

great info kasey,really. i am just wondering whether or not your doc ever actually did an MRI on you just to see what is actually 'firing off" your TPs at their very base level? its just that TPs are created when a nerve that is being irritated or even impinged within the spinal area(most likely when it involves the areas you mentioned)gets inflammed and starts shooting out signals to the muscle. it is not the actual muscle itself that creates those wads of tissue, its the reaction to what is called fascia that covers the muscles,organs and even the blood vessels that thins out then contracts up thus causing the TPs to even be there. you can knock them down with certain therepies(i personally use myofascial release) but if that underlying generator is not resolved in some way,they just keep recycling themselves over and over again. that is my major generator of mine. my c spine is kind of a mess.

but you are very very right in just how badly they can affect certain areas. i am just curious if they ever did that MRI just to see what may be inside there at the spinal level that more than likely shot off the whole problem to begin with. there is usually some level of real nerve involvment going on that just needs to be found out. marcia

Hi, yes I had x-rays by a doc and an MRI by the neuro. The original problem was caused by a car accident where I received a whiplash and all of these symptoms. The next time these symptoms came on was over a year after I was done with my treatments. I overdid cleaning and strained my neck. I rested and thought it would go away. The pain went away, but all it did was turn into more symptoms, the dizzy spells, light headedness, feeling of out of it etc. Which is why I was first being treated for an inner ear problem, a virus etc.
I do know there is a reason to have this problem in the first place like you said, and something that brings it on, and it doesn't have to be anything severe or memorable. I helped one guy on here years ago who had been searching for answers for a year. He had been diagnosed with menieres disease a year before and taken off work. He went back to his neuro., asked that these be checked and found he had a severe problem with this. He also found out he didn't have menieres disease and was very happy. He went to a therapist and had these areas treated then and got to go back to work.
I just know it helped me immensely and living like that can be almost unbearable. Thankyou for your information

Oh I forgot to tell you that I had a mild bulging disk in my neck, and was going to the chiro. This helped some, but the neuro. did a test on my muscles. He sent me to PT. The main problem was my muscles in my neck, I couldn't move my neck at all at first. But even when I was done with therapy, the symptoms came back when I overdid it again, not much pain, more dizzy spells and light headedness. So I made sure I finished it this time instead of stopping early because I felt OK.

Hi, thank you for posting this (some time ago, it seems). About two months ago I began to develop similar symptoms to the ones you described; lightheadedness, dizzy spells, confusion, fatigue, some trouble remembering things, and most prominently just "feeling out of it." This brain fog is progressively getting worse with time, and it is driving me crazy. I was wondering if the "trigger points" in the upper back may also cause some periodic tightness in the chest (I thought it was asthma, but my doctor checked me and said I am fine).

I week or two before the symptoms showed up, I hit my head pretty hard and probably received mild whip-lash. I'll be going to a neurologist soon to get tested for any damage, which I should have done immediately after the impact.

But what do you think about the tightness in the chest? Any possible connection to "trigger points?"

Hi, sorry I have not been on here for quite some time. I do know that some people have had tightness in the chest when there was a problem with their vertebrae, and this was treated by a chiropractor. I dont know if it has anything to do with what I called the trigger points. Mine were all in my upper back and I had muscle strain in my upper back and neck. I hope you get to the bottom of your problem. Have you found out what is causing your symptoms?

My question is, can bad posture--in the longterm--eventually cause problems like this? I have a lot of these symptoms except for the dizziness. My worst one is head pressure. No whiplash or other accidents that I can recall.

I don't know but I don't think so. My head pressure is either caused by allergies, which I have in the spring and summer, or when I have neck problems, then I will have head pressure. I have never known of bad posture causing these symptoms. If you have the off balance problem, trouble concentrating, and head pressure, but no problems with your neck, or upper back, these symptoms can be a reaction to something in the air, where the sinuses swell, causing pressure in the head, fullness in the ears, because the ear canal is narrower or blocked, and this then causes the balance problems.

I don't know but I don't think so. My head pressure is either caused by allergies, which I have in the spring and summer, or when I have neck problems, then I will have head pressure. I have never known of bad posture causing these symptoms. If you have the off balance problem, trouble concentrating, and head pressure, but no problems with your neck, or upper back, these symptoms can be a reaction to something in the air, where the sinuses swell, causing pressure in the head, fullness in the ears, because the ear canal is narrower or blocked, and this then causes the balance problems.

Then if not from bad posture, what kinds of things can cause the trigger point problem you've often mentioned?

I should say I have some occasional balance problems, massive brain fog, and head pressure, but dizziness is a rare symptom for me. Actual headache is uncommon, but head pressure is constant.

Yes, an ear nose and throat doc I believe can check you for allergies. I am waking up daily right now feeling drug out and not with it because of the weather. I was not tested, because when I did go in, I had been very sick with allergies, was talking nasally because of my swelled sinuses and I was prescribed a med. because nothing over the counter was working. I was also getting horrible muscles aches, apparently from the mold in the air, I could barely function. Here is what i learned from the doc, and found to be true. If it comes on suddenly, and goes away suddenly, its most likely allergies. If it comes on very gradually and never goes away, nothing you do makes it better or worse, it is probably not allergies, as they come on within minutes, and leave the same way. Now if you think the problem may be in your back and neck, a physical therapist will be able to check these areas to see if this is the source of your problem. In fact, i would probably have that checked first since you have back and neck problems. Then go from there. Good luck to you!!